I pretty much enjoyed last week’s show up until the last five minutes or so. Of course…the last five minutes is when the show should hit its peak…so that just left a bad taste in my mouth. It wasn’t so much that Styles didn’t win (although that bothered me too) because if they follow up on his push in the least he’ll be a bigger star for it. Then there was Russo. I’ve been his biggest supporter (in that I wasn’t really anti-Russo)…but now he’s just gone too far for me. Back when he took the limelight there really wasn’t anybody other than Jeff Jarrett at the top anyway. Having Russo be his foil was fine with me because (other than The Truth…and that feud had just ended) there was no one else anyway. But things changed since then. AJ Styles was built up as a top contender very well. Raven debuted. Vader debuted. Truth is now doing nothing and going back to Truth/JJ would be fine with me. They have FOUR viable options to have major feuds with Jarrett over the title…but Russo is still pushing himself. Four people that could easily give the company top feuds for months. Then after Jarrett loses the title they could mix up and they could run on this through the summer. OR we could have Vince Russo ending the show stalking Jarrett.

Welcome to the preview about nothing.

If nothing is what TNA will give me…then nothing is what we’ll discuss today. Nothing about TNA anyway. The theory being that this column is basically an advertising tool for the weekly TNA show for the most part…and if they don’t give me matches to advertise…I’ll advertise something else.

Bodyslams in Buffalo: The complete history of Pro Wrestling in Western New York

No I’m not going to rant about the entire history of wrestling in the region that I live in. I was in Barnes and Nobles the other month and I found a little book by that very name written by Dan Murphy (the back of the book tells me he is a senior writer at Pro Wrestling Illustrated). The book chronicles all of the major happenings in professional wrestling in the history of Buffalo. It looks at wrestling stars that have come from Buffalo (Lex Luger, Mark Mero, Adrian Adonis) and pays special attention to the two biggest stars in Buffalo wrestling history: Ilio DiPaolo (who, after his career, became a restaurant owner and local celebrity before his death a few years ago) and Dick “The Destroyer” Beyer (one of the most successful American wrestlers in the history of Japanese wrestling). It also covers historic nights in wrestling history that occurred here. These include Honky Tonk Man upsetting Ricky Steamboat for the Intercontinental title, the WCW and wrestling legends coming to town for a tribute to the (soon to be closed) Memorial Auditorium and the life of Ilio Dipaolo, and even RVD’s big ECW TV title won over Bam Bam Bigelow (the last two I was actually in attendance for).

Now that last paragraph probably means nothing to anyone outside of the Western New York area…but it got me to thinking. There are many towns in the U.S. that are far deeper in wrestling history than Buffalo (although…if I’m not mistaken the first of the Von Erich tragedies occurred here). I can only imagine the books that could be written on the history of wrestling in Minnesota, Texas or Tennessee. So my question to you is…are there any other books like this? Let me know by dropping me an email at [email protected] .

Something I stole from the Torch

-Video game fans, THQ wants your input for future wrestling games. PWTorch.com reader Michael Brenner reports: THQ is seeking feedback from WWE video game fans in order to make the next generation of video games better. The survey can be found at the following address: http://www.thq.com/fanfeedback/wwe/

Xbox

So I got an Xbox. It came with Sega GT 2002 and Jet Set Radio Future and I bought Halo and Buffy (YES!) and NHL 2K3 to play online(Gamertag is bps21 for anyone who wants to be taken to school). Then I rented a whole bunch of games…and hated pretty much all of them. The games I rented were: Ghost Recon (terrible), Panzer Dragoon Orta (not my kind of game), Splinter Cell (I actually liked this one a little), Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance (Sucked), Unreal Championship (was OK), Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (I’ll probably buy this one), Mechassault (not my kind of game either, I guess) and the Thing (couldn’t get into it).

So outside of the two games I liked…can anyone tell me what games I should be renting? I’ve figured out what games I need for the Gamecube and PS2…but this Xbox thing has me thrown for a loop. Any help would be appreciated…shoot me an email.

All right…so they gave us one match to preview…and it looks like a stinker.

Dusty Rhodes and Vader vs. The Harris Brothers

Now…I’m as happy as anyone to see Vader in TNA…but come on. This match is destined for a DUD. On the plus side…Rhodes’ weak looking elbows are the only things that Don Harris seems to sell. If you want to see Vader in TNA…I suggest waiting until they have him doing something far better than this.

Also…I think Jerry Lynn is supposed to be wrestling someone Konnan is bringing in. While this is interesting it isn’t enough to warrant a purchase when we don’t know who it is…and Lynn will probably just destroy them anyway.

That’s it for this week. They give me nothing…and I funnel it on down to you.

Until next week…Watch Buffy, read Cobb and play Pride FC. That’s what I’ll be doing.